I have an atwood 10 gallon gas hot water heater. All of a sudden it will not cut off. The relief valve goes off to release the pressure but it never turns off. We are thinking that it is some kind of faulty shut off switch but are not sure as we are fairly new to everything. Any help would be appreciated. We would really like to fix it ourself both to save money and to learn. Again, we would appreciate any words of wisdom from the veterans out there.
Christie
Take it to a rv repair shop. I have noticed that everyone has an opinion about how to fix LP problems, but if you dont rally know what you are doing you can burn the place down. Take it to someone who knows and watch.
While I'm not familiar with Atwoods. There is a thermostat on the side of the tank somewhere. It should be touching the side of the tank. Sounds like it's come out of contact with the tank causing it not to sense the heat and keep it firing. Find the t-stat and reposition it to the vessel wall and it should solve your problem.
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Sounds like a ECO/Thermostat problem. As suggested it could be that it isn't touching the wall of the water heater.
If repositioning it doesn't resolve problem then I would get a new thermostat.
The thermostat is in the outside compartment with the gas burner assembly, close to relief valve, under a removable piece of thin insluation. Probably ink stamped 'ECO-Thermostat' with couple of wires coming from it to control board.
Also because it is not shutting off the 'ECO' (High limit) is not working either. Maybe just becasue they are not touching wall of heater.
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I agree with the diagnosis of Hardtack. The Atwood ECO is actually two thermostats, one which is on the power to the igniter circuit board and which is the normal temperature control. The second one is an over temperature device which is supposed to open when the temperature reaches 10 degrees above the normal set point of the first.
The fact that neither one seems to be working does make it suspicious that it may not be in good contact with the tank. You can find that device located about the center of the tank area which is seen when you open the access door and it should be under a piece of black foam insulation and should have the letters ECO on it, if they can still be read. You will also see four electrical connections which extend through that foam.
If you remove the leads, mark which one came from each location as the way that they pair together is important. The ECO should be held against the tank by a spring which fits over it and between the ECO and the mounting. It may be that the spring has collapsed. If so, a new spring normally comes with a new spring as well.
Nothing about this problem involves any work with propane and it is very easy. I would suggest that you carefully remove the old ECO and as you do, replace each wire to the location you took it from when clear of the mounting. Once you do that, mount the new ECO and use the old one as a guide to put the wires back into the right locations. Of course, before you start make sure that the power is turned off to the water heater.
You can easily confirm that this is what is happening by simply removing any one lead from your present ECO and the water heater should shut off.
As you do this, you will also see that there is another device connected to one of the leads on your ECO. That device is a heat limiter which is there to turn off the water heater and the gas if there should be a "blow back" where the propane starts to burn in the air tube, rather than in the burner where it should. That is a safety device and must be there. If yours is old and dirty looking, it might be wise to replace that at the same time.
Both of those parts are available at any RV supply shop and are not very expensive.
Most RV water heater controls have pre-set temperatures of 140 degrees for the thermostat and 180 degrees for the high-limit.
I have never seen a set of controls with only a 10 degree differential between the two.
In fact, most Kilxon disk-type controls have a temperature differential in itself of 10 degrees. In other words your 140 degree thermostat will not activate until it senses 130 degrees of water temperature and will open when water temps reach 140 degrees.
That 180 degree limit switch will open at 180 degrees and will close at 170 degrees.
BTW, in order for the pressure relief valve to open, both the thermostat and the high-limit switch would need to be defective which is highly unlikely.
You could have a sticking gas valve.
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I appreciate everyone's advice. I do have another question for Steve. Is there anyway to test for a sticking gas valve. I tend to think that is more the problem simply because the gas is not shutting off. On the other hand, is there a way to test to ECO wires with a multimeter And if so how? Thanks again for your help .
Christie
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